ブライアーローズ : Briar Rose
by hishikawa
Summary: ーShe is notorious for two things at Shitenhouji Middle School: her ambiguous personality and peculiar sleeping habits. Shiraishi Kuranosuke will be the first to find out that there are more to those two things to Otonashi Nobara, and that fact scares her.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: _Hello, this is Imari. Dissonance is being rewritten under the name of Briar Rose. We've also added different quirks to our OC, Nobara. The pairing will not be released as always, but we are leaning towards a Shiraishi/OC centric romance._

* * *

Summary: She is notorious for two things at Shitenhouji Middle School: her ambiguous personality and peculiar sleeping habits. Shiraishi Kuranosuke will be the first to find out that there are more than just those two things to Otonashi Nobara, and that fact scares her.

* * *

 **ブライアーローズ**

l

 **Briar Rose**

* * *

Satan's death trap; also well-known as Shitenhouji Middle School's classroom 1-4.

It wasn't really a pit full of fiery demons, of course. Shiraishi's first-year classroom was once equipped with a well-functioning air-con, but previous Osaka summers have taken a toll on its life and finally rendered it unusable about a month ago. The rest of his classmates had already left the premises to celebrate their freedom from the hell hole. Shiraishi was about to do the same but he noticed a lone girl left behind and slumped over in her chair.

Five minutes past the end of their last class, she was still seated at the very back center of the room; bathing in the stuffy heat created by the summer haze outside. The health-conscious teen was thinking that she had succumbed to the heat, but her light snoring proved him otherwise. If she continued to doze off any further, she would eventually pass out from heat exhaustion.

"Hey... class is over, you know?" Shiraishi spoke up, "You should wake up."

With his tennis bag slung behind his shoulder, he studied the sleeping girl. The clamorous cicadas crying outside the open windows were unable to wake her either.

Her head that buried in her arms shifted towards him. Her eyes were still closed shut and her breathing continued undisturbed. Black hair was put back in a ponytail; leaving several strands to stick onto the skin of her slim face. Under the sunlight, Shiraishi could see a sheen of sweat forming above her eyebrows.

 _'That's enough sleep time for you.'_

 _"_ Hey." He spoke up again, sounding firmer and considerably louder. "Wake up."

The drowsy girl's eyebrows scrunched up together, followed by her body stirring in her seat. Lips parted and half-lidded eyes slowly began to open to reveal a pair of gold colored orbs. With her head still laying in her arms, she met the silverette's gaze with a dazed expression.

For the very first time, Shiraishi made eye contact with class 1-4's Otonashi Nobara.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I'd like to thank those of you who have re-followed this story. It's very encouraging. For those of you who requested to beta read our stories, we have to decline for now. Also, Aizenbashi Hospital is an actual hospital located within the Naniwa ward of Osaka. About character appearances, I'm taking it from the anime. I feel it adds more to their style (since a majority of the characters are described to have brown eyes in the manga).

To the unnamed guest _—_

I'm pleased it seems interesting so far. It' s unfortunate, but it's a struggle to write with my schedule nowadays, so you'll (everyone will) have to bear with irregular updates. Thank you for reading so far!

* * *

 **ブライアーローズ**

l

 **Briar Rose**

* * *

Nobara's Side

 _The hot weather began at lunch and persisted through the last class of the term._

 _Precisely half an hour before the end of the lecture, I was staring at the clock above the entrance to our classroom and silently licking my chapped lips. The lip balm I applied before the start of the period had dried out completely in this burning heat._

 _I never heard the end of people's complaints concerning our classroom's rising room temperature. What was the use of complaining about something they could not control? If anything, the heat haze had lulled me into a deep slumber. I couldn't even recall what I was doing before I slipped into a state of nothingness._

 _Then as I slept on my desk, I thought to myself about a lot of things—_

 _The errands I would run for my mother after school._

 _The steaming trays of takoyaki I would share with my little brother._

 _The few, but memorable moments I spent laughing with my father._

 _Many other things I cannot remember because they were all a part of one strange, collective dream; which came to an end with someone's faint voice telling me to wake up._

 _I didn't move._

 _I didn't open my eyes._

 _I felt incredibly exhausted and as much as the sun made my back sweat; I didn't care about it. I was comfortable and content with where I was, and my head refused to bring itself up from my desk._

 _'Wake up.'_

 _The voice had become borderline commanding and grabbed my attention._

 _A small sigh left my lips. Slowly, I opened my eyes to the brightly lit classroom. My eyes narrowed to the light that invaded my vision and once I was able to focus, I noticed a boy standing beside my desk. It was one of the guys that sat at the very front of the classroom beside the window. I recognized his hair, a sandy brown that shone like silver in the sunlight._

 _Wide, gray eyes were staring down at me._

 _It was Shiraishi Kuranosuke, one of the brighter students of 1-4._

 _He stood there with his arms across his chest and his attention was trained on me._ _If someone was looking in from the outside, perhaps they would have assumed that he was a creep who liked to watch sleeping girls._ _My eyes narrowed at him. Shiraishi just leaned against the desk behind him, clearly studying me._

 _I couldn't stop the scowl that spread across my face. I opened my mouth and was prepared to tell him off bitterly, but at that moment, I noticed just how empty the classroom was. I broke eye contact and scanned the room from left to right. I remember thinking frantically: how much time had passed? My gaze shot up at the analog ticking away at the front of the classroom._

 _'Everyone just left.' Shiraishi had reassured me._

 _Inwardly, I gave a sigh of relief._

 _He leaned further back onto the desk behind him._ _'You'll get heat stroke if you stay here any longer.'_

 _Despite his words, he looked as if he was enjoying it himself. He tilted his head back and let the sun's rays beat on his face._

 _Hypocrite._

 _I didn't want to stay in his prescence any longer. My legs moved on their own and brought my body out of my seat. Mumbling a curt thank you, I packed the scattered papers on my desk into my bag and walked past the strange boy. I made no hurry out of the classroom, but I ended up colliding with another student in his sweaty, white uniform shirt._

 _The impact caused me to take one step back into the classroom and snap out of my lasting daze. I looked up to unruly, lightly colored brown hair and sharp, dark cerulean eyes. The boy stepped aside with a slight blush of embarrassment and scratched the back of his head. He looked down at me and apologized very sincerely._

 _For some reason, I couldn't help but smile before nodding at him. He resembled a guilty grade school student apologizing to an angry teacher._

 _'Oshitari?'_

 _I walked back into the hall and heard Shiraishi calling out to someone; most likely the boy who had hurried into the classroom. Reaching a hand behind my neck, I wiped away the disgusting drops of sweat that trickled down my nape. The roots of my hair were beginning to feel greasy as well. Perhaps it was a good thing that Shiraishi woke me up._

 _I wanted nothing more than a long, cold shower._

* * *

Otonashi opened her eyes.

She woke up with her hair dried and fanned out on the floor. The teen laid under her family's dining table and opened her eyes to the ceiling fan circulating above her. Her mother, Erika, emerged from the kitchen with a thin, glass vase of fresh flowers in her hands.

Humming a sweet tune, the older woman went down on her knees beside her daughter's head and positioned the vase at the center of the table. As she picked at her floral piece, Erika spoke to her daughter. "You've been quiet after your shower. Lost in thought?"

Yawning, Otonashi propped herself up beside her mother and drew her legs into a criss-cross. "I'm sorry if I worried you. This heat got me groggy in class." The lounging girl kept the other half of the truth to herself. There was no way she would admit sleeping in class to her mother. Smoothly, she digressed the conversation. "So what kind of flowers are they this time?" The teen studied the delicate flowers placed across the table.

"Do you like them? They're carnations." Erika rested her arm on the mahogany wood and admired them fondly. "The florist in the hospital had an overstock and offered it for grabs on our floor last night."

Bundled up so close together, the frilly flowers in the vase looked like one delicate puffball of pink. Otonashi wasn't fond of its vivid color, but the bouquet her mother arranged created an interesting effect.

"They are lovely," Otonashi admitted to her. "Even if it's a little too bright for my tastes."

"Aa, that's right," Her mother pressed the back of her hand to her lips and chuckled lightly. "No-chan hates pink."

"I don't _hate_ pink," She emphasized the strong word. "And don't call me that." Otonashi wasn't fond of that endearment either.

As if on cue, her chocolate haired little brother came flying out of the young teen's room yelling. "No-chan, No-chan!"

Before the elder sister could even react, she was run down by him in a second and hugged tightly around her waist.

"Shion, how many times have I told you to stop running inside the house?" Otonashi ruffled the boy's messy hair. "And who gave you permission to be in my room again?"

Pouting, the first grader removed himself away from her and ran into his mother's embrace.

"That's my fault." Their mother gently brushed her son's hair from of his face. "I didn't tell him to clean his room when I came back home."

The teenager would find that troublesome kid loitering in her room when his was a mess.

"It's not your fault okaa-san," Otonashi ran a hand through her long strands of hair and reassured her tired mother. "I just hope he didn't damage anything."

The last time Shion was in her room, he was jumping on her bed as if it were a trampoline and knocked down one of the potted plants she had received from her mother as a gift.

"I'm sure he didn't," She reassured Otonashi as lax as always. "Right, Shi-kun?" Her green eyes glanced down at the boy in her arms affectionately.

Shion grinned up at his mother childishly. Shion very much resembled his mother with his emerald eyes and dark wavy hair. As the doting mother looked upon her child, Otonashi noted the faint, dark circles had formed beneath the skin under her eyes. Her eldest daughter knew her mother's sleepless nights had been adding unnecessary stress to her job over the past few months.

"Oh no." Otonashi's eyes rounded in realization. She immediately picked herself off the floor; almost tripping over her own feet.

Her family's eyes darted up to her frantic form. Her mother was startled by her abrupt transition.

"Nobara?"

Otonashi swiped the keys to the house and her bike lock from a tiny bowl on the kitchen counter and hurried back to the front door.

In haste, she grabbed her bag, shed her socks and slipped into a pair of black wedge slippers.

"I need to pick up your medication from the pharmacy."

"Ah yes." Her mother recalled as well before she started to protest. "Why are you bringing your school bag? And your clothes-"

Despite that, there was no stopping her daughter who was already locking up the door from the outside.

* * *

Otonashi was at the front counter of Aizenbashi Hospital's pharmacy counter. Pharmacists in white lab coats were pacing back and forth between shelves of medications and hurriedly taking calls from other departments. It was a common occurrence the teen observed many times to retrieve her mother's medications.

As always, there a male pharmaceutical clerk behind the counter to attend to her. "What can I help you with today, little miss?"

"I'm picking up a monthly medication." She explained to the middle-aged man. "It's for my mother."

"Her name?"

"Otonashi Erika."

As required, Otonashi gave her mother's full name, birthdate and their house phone respectively. After verifying the information on a computer, the man disappeared behind one of the shelves.

In a short while, he emerged with a white bag sealed with a brand of the hospital and slid it towards her from across the counter.

Typically, Otonashi would have taken the medicine after the pharmacist's monotonous farewell and left straight for home, but this pharmacist behind the counter had continued to stare down at her without another word.

A young girl picking up psychotropic medication from a pharmacy was a rare and concerning sight; even if it was for her mother. The nerve-wracking thought of running into one of their neighbors would usually send her back onto her bike. If they were to question her business at the hospital, she would attempt to lie and lead herself into a disastrous scenario.

How could she predict so?

The eldest daughter of the Otonashi household would never try to lie; for the sole reason that she could never make one sound convincing.

A smile grew as the man shifted his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He seemed to notice her nervously chewing the inside of her cheek. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," He leaned his body over the counter and spoke to Otonashi softly."Your uniform reminded me of my son."

"My uniform?" The school girl gripped the gray ends of her skirt and pulled it outwards as she glanced down at herself. The pharmacist's mouth parted slightly. Then he began chuckling to himself. His laughter was even kind to her ears. Embarrassed, Otonashi shot him a hefty glare and promptly snatched the medicine off the counter. She heard the chuckling man call back to her apologetically. Shoving the packet of medicine into her school bag, the newly irritated girl was thinking about how much she wanted to ditch him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm not making fun of you. " He stifled his laughter. "You looked so cute staring down at yourself like that."

Otonashi reluctantly traveled back to the counter and stared up at him with a stern expression. She uttered one word.

"Creep."

Because the man was leaning closer to her, Otonashi caught a better glimpse of the plastic name tag pinned to the right breast of his white lab coat.

There were two neatly printed kanji characters under his pharmaceutical title _—_

Shiraishi.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I'm thinking of adding slice of life elements to this. What are your thoughts about that? It's been a little while since I updated and I lost some touch with the story, but I'm slowly getting back into it.

Also, thank you to both okitaco and akuma-chan25300 for your reviews.

I'm very glad you like Nobara, okitaco. I spent a lot of time thinking about her traits as a character and how it came to be because her history heavily contributes to how she lives her life now. Thank you again, I'm very flattered! I'm also honored to have your review, akuma-chan. I'm doing my best to keep everything smooth and consistent.

This is a Nobara centric chapter where I introduce another OC of mine. Ajihara Elementary is also a real school within the Tennouji ward of Osaka.

-imari

* * *

 **ブライアーローズ**

l

 **Briar Rose**

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Soichiro thought his angry little customer returned to the front of the counter just to glower up at him.

That was until she opened her mouth.

"Creep."

Soichiro groaned to himself.

He thought her enraged responses were very cute. Now he was just worried the girl was going to file a complaint to the pharmacy, and that would be an embarrassment he would have to handle amongst his colleagues. In fact, he could already hear a handful of them snickering behind the shelves of medication.

Troubled, the girl marched her way back towards the exit, but not before tripping over her own feet. Quietly, but still close enough to be audible, Soichiro picked up a short, but frantic 'ah' before her fragile looking body hit the ground. Everyone nearby froze and had their attention on the girl faceplanted in the middle of the hospital lobby.

Soichiro wasted no time.

He motioned one of his colleagues to ring up the sweet looking old lady at the front of the counter.

Abandoning his position, he rushed over to assist the school girl lying stiffly on the floor. Soichiro knelt beside her fallen form. He placed a hand on her thin shoulder and shook her. Rousing her, she managed to push herself off the floor.

Then she turned her face towards him.

"Pfftー"

Soichiro couldn't help it.

The fall was no laughing manner, but the speedy transition from pure humiliation to sheer rage after noticing him by her side could've set records. It was an amusing sight to behold.

Soichiro offered a hand to help her up. She blinked down at it before scowling up at him. "Thanks, but no thanks."

She was clearly angry at him.

"I'm sorry for being rude,"

Her brooding caused him to add. "Again."

Frowning, she propped herself up and managed to stand on her own. The medicine she stuffed into her bag was poking out. Her mother's identification sticker was exposed and slightly crumpled.

Otonashi, was it?

"I know your son." She spoke to him and brushed off the dust adhering to the front of her skirt. "We're classmates this year."

It was a wonderful feeling to meet a classmate of his son, but the bitterness behind her words had him laughing awkwardly in response. Without passing another glance at him, she nodded her head at him and was on her way again.

"And I don't like him very much."

Her last remark was subtle and spoken under her breath; like a slight breeze blowing past his ear. Soichiro thrust his hands into the pockets of his lab coat and watched her off. There was at least one person who didn't like his only son, and it turned out to be such a cute girl.

"Why is that? I wonder." He mumbled to himself with an incredulous smile spreading across his lips. Soichiro returned to the back room of the pharmacy. Upon his re-entry, he was approached by two of his co-workers.

"We saw you laughing at her, Shiraishi." One of them slapped his back in mock praise. "You're quite the professional."

"What a rookie, huh?" The other ruffled his hair affectionately. "I knew the department would receive a poor rep because of you someday."

Despite being their senior, Soichiro was often treated like the inexperienced one.

"You brats are a pain."

Whilst laughing, he swatted his friends' hands away.

...

Otonashi violently slammed her foot back on the brakes of her bicycle after pedaling up a steep incline.

"I don't like people who stare." She huffed and looked up at the stretch of blue sky ahead of her.

Her exhaustion made it harder for her not to think about the events at the hospital. Otonashi closed her eyes and remembered how upset the pharmacist made her feel. The thought prompted her to grind her back molars together.

How fed up she was with the course of today's events.

As Otonashi laid face first on the dirty linoleum, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Someone knelt down beside her. Their gentle hand rested on her shoulder and shook her lightly. Out of embarrassment, she brushed it off and helped herself up. She sat up onto her legs and faced them.

The man had failed to suppres his laughter and she felt her aching face burn hotter. He offered his hand, but she shot another glare his way.

Her eyes widened in recognition and the breath hitched in her throat.

Shiraishi was beside her.

The light shining through the hospital windows illuminated the man's short, brown hair. It shone in a familiar shade of silver.

No, it wasn't Shiraishi.

Her gauking expression softened upon her realization. Those eyes weren't the same. Perhaps in shape, but the man's eyes were a deep coffee, nothing like Shiraishi's gray ones. This man had sharper features compared to Shiraishi's round face.

The surname on his nametag further proved the relationship between Shiraishi and the pharmacist.

The screech of rubber against asphalt created a noise that attracted attention to her yet again. There were just as many eyes trained on her compared to when she miserably face planted in the middle of the hospital lobby.

She was just too tired to care this time.

Hanging her head over the handlebars of the red bike, Otonashi closed her eyes.

A droplet of sweat dripped down from behind her right ear. In the end, she would have to take another shower. She felt her uniform sticking to the sweat on her body. It was good the term was over; laundry day wasn't until the following week.

"Otonashi?" A voice she faintly recognized called her name. "It's Otonashi, isn't it?"

Lifting her head, she noticed a lanky figure standing at the corner of the street waving a hand in her direction. In her other hand, she held a plastic bag filled to the brim with groceries. Wheeling the bike closer, Otonashi was able to identify them. Her golden tresses were tied up in a side pony that swept across her right shoulder. Those naturally pouting lips and indecipherable dark eyes were one of a kind to Otonashi.

Standing in a gray sleeveless shirt and a pair of faded denim shorts was Takahara Reiko, a former classmate from Otonashi's primary school. Takahara advanced towards her with a pearly white smile. "It's been awhile!"

"Where have you been? I haven't seen you since our graduation from Ajihara, Takahara-san." Otonashi attempted some small talk; a skill she had yet to master.

Takahara lowered her head and chuckled with a wry smile on her face. Her laughter seemed a little tense. Before Otonashi could put a finger on it, she was upbeat again.

The wind blew Takahara's side swept fringe upwards and exposed her forehead to the sudden blast of air. A set of golden eyes settled above her right eyebrow. There was a bandage sticking to her forehead, but it didn't draw Otonashi's attentionー not much compared to the giant, purple welt forming just below the hairline of her bangs.

The wind ceased, but her bangs continued to suspend itself over her forehead and Otonashi's eyes were still glued to the dark bruise that was clearly exposed to her.

"Oh." She finally noticed the lingering stare. Frantically, she smoothened the stray bangs down with the palm of her hand and kept it there to hold it in place. "In case you're wondering, I'm all right."

In the silence that followed afterward, the apology left Otonashi's lips.

"I'm sorry, staring was rude of me."

Takahara's wry smile returned and her brown eyebrows scrunched together quizzically. "You're a polite girl aren't you, Otonashi?" Whilst mumbling, she gazed dejectedly towards the ground. "Perhaps I should've gotten to know you better back thenー"

Otonashi didn't know what to make of that comment, and the smaller girl wasn't about to ask about what she meant by that.

With another sheepish smile, Takahara digressed.

"I know we used to walk home in the same direction. Do you want to go back together?"

Otonashi nodded her head and continued to roll the bike on her right side while listening to Takahara rant on her left. One of her heated stories included several dramatic hand motions and intense expressions.

"You know how there was a special interschool tennis match in Ajihara before we graduated? The match against one of the schools in our area? Well, I went to watch it and I'm there sitting in the stands, right? During one of the doubles matches, one of the rival players smashed the tennis ball into the crowd. The crowd is 'oo-ing' and 'ah-ing'! And you know who it hitsー"

She balls one of her hands up into a fist and smacks it into the other palm of her hand.

"Me. _Me_ of all people! I was fuming! I should've smashed it back into that stupid, speed monkey's face!"

Otonashi's imagery wasn't known to be the greatest, but she pictured several hyperactive monkeys on a tennis court waving their rackets around recklessly. It brought out a small smile at first, but in the end it left her chuckling.

Seeming pleased, Takahara beamed down at her.

Her ranting was deliberate, and Otonashi knew the talkative girl beside her had been trying to get her to laugh.

"It was getting late when I ran into you. You were just going home from school?" She studied her school uniform curiously. Otonashi nodded her head once more. The only lies she could get away with were the ones she made by shaking her head. "You're in a club, huh? Maybe sports? There's no other reason why you'd be out for so long."

"No sports. Just library committee." Otonashi answered plainly.

Library committee was an after school activity every Saturday, and today was Wednesday, but she didn't have to know that.

"Besides, I have the endurance of a ninety year old woman."

That was the truth, but Takahara was humored by Otonashi's non chalant way of saying she had zero fitness ability.

A barrage of questions continued on, as well as Takahara's fits of laughter between Otonashi's answers. The laughter settled down as she asked more about school, but the mirth was still there.

"When is summer break?"

"It just started today, actually."

"What school?'

"Shitenhouji."

Takahara clapped her hands together delightedly. She stared down at me again excitedly from head to toe. "That's Shitenhouji's summer uniform? It's very cute!"

The summer uniform had a long striped design running through the dress from top to bottom. Otonashi admitted the design was peculiar, but she wasn't about to complain.

Before going their respective ways, they exchanged phone numbers at a quiet crossroad. Takahara's parting gift of the evening was a bar of dark chocolate from the grocery mart and a grin, which Otonashi accepted eagerly as a sweet tooth.

"I'll be attending Shitenhouji this coming term too." Takahara's eyes were sparkling excitedly again. "I hope we'll be able to hang out more when it starts."

This was a 'let's be friends' proposition.

Otonashi was hesitant to entertain the thought of befriending one of my elementary school's well-known students. Where there was a crowd there was Takahara; a place where the quieter girl often didn't belong.

Will Takahara continue to be surrounded by people no matter where she carried herself?

As always, it could only be known when the time comes.

Otonashi's mouth opened without a second thought, but her next words rang true. She returned Takahara's hopeful expression with an unabashed grin and agreed.

"Yes, we should."

 **...**

I arrived at the apartment nearly at sundown. Mother already went to work and of course upon entering, I found Shion watching the television in the dark. I moved to the other side of the room and switched on the light. My little brother crinckled his nose and looked away from me in disgust.

"You stink, No-chan."

"Huh?"

I looked down at myself and instantly agreed. One whiff was enough to make me feel light headed.

"A-Anyway, didn't mom tell you not to watch TV in the dark? You'll go blind."

After berating him and giving him a light thunk on the head, I took the second shower of the day. Soon after, I sauntered back into my room and flopped onto my bed carelessly.

Hours had already passed when I heard the door creak open. Alarmed, I sat up from my bed and scanned the darkness of my room. Just barely I noticed Shion's figure standing in the doorway rubbing his half-lidded eyes with a small hand still wrapped around the doorknob.

Sighing, I motioned him forward.

That toothy, yet weary smile of his grew as he approached the side of my bed. It was another sleepless night for us both. This whole day I haven't been able to rest without being interrupted.

Shion crawled onto the beside me and wiped his eyes with the back of his tiny hands. I shifted closer to him and rubbed his head gently.

I couldn't forget the genuine excitement laced in those words.

"Now No-chan smells good." I felt Shion cuddle closer to me. "Like cherry blossom cake."

Cake?

I heard his stomach rumble and sighed even more.

"I'll make you a big breakfast tomorrow, you silly boy."

His hands were curled up against his chest as it rose and fell softly with every breath. I slid my body back down beside his sleeping form. Shutting my eyes, I knew that finally I could sleep just as peacefully and wake up to a new day.

The summer was spent on steaming trays of takoyaki and lazy outings in Doutonbori with Shion and my mother; even crazy shopping sprees with Takahara. Those days spent with friends and family were truly the best times, and before I knew it, the warm season that always brought us together passed.

The second term of my first year at Shitenhouji came to take its place. Six weeks were up, and I returned to my seat at the back of class 1-4.

Little did I know that it was only a matter of time before my inner peace would be shatteredー

Leaving me vulnerable to the last person I'd expect.


End file.
